BBCi
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Young conquers album charts
The debut album of Pop Idol winner Will Young has gone straight into the album
charts at number one.
From Now On features several songs written by Young as well as the chart-toppers
Anything Is Possible/Evergreen and his cover of The Doors' Light My Fire.
Sales figures for the first week of release have yet to be confirmed.
Young's album ended the chart-topping reign of the Elvis Presley compilation
album Elvis - 30 Number 1 Hits, which had spent two weeks at number one.
Dotmusic.com
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WILL YOUNG 'FROM NOW ON' (BMG)
And so the culmination of that massive team effort - TV,
tabloids, music industry and makeovers bears fruit and out pops Will Young's
debut album. Of course the collaboration doesn't end there - witness the
massive credits list on every track here - no room then for a lyric sheet. We
must assume that if writer/producers Cathy Dennis and Richard 'Biff' Stannard
were ever the victims of a tragic accident, the entire British pop market would
be wiped out at once - such is their current dominance of the genre and of this
collection. Likewise the omnipresent 19 organisation which manages Will and his
producers as well as handling his publishing - ouch.
Dennis and Stannard at least ensure a calibre of pop song,
and some suitably dreamy, Barryesque orchestral arrangements, but what about
Will Young? The boy can sing of course, but surely these songs could have been
performed as competently by any of the final dozen or so Pop Idol puppets - or
better by Mick Hucknall.
No sign here of Pete Waterman's over-stated Nat King Cole
comparisons, maybe the odd dash of Bobby Goldsboro and an adolescent George
Michael, but Will even struggles on occasion to be heard above the backing
singers and strings, he's that unimportant to the final mix. 'What's in
Goodbye' boasts the mighty Burt Bacharach as one of its writers but despite its
trademark muted brass stabs, whistling and soaring orchestra, it ain't no 'Walk
On By'.
If he's lucky, Will might last long enough to decide what
he wants to do - which songs he wants to sing. At the moment it's a sure-fire
mix of everyman pop/ballad, 'Love Struck' being a perfect example, that'll be
commercially successful - how could it not be after a year of wall to wall
saturation coverage - but an artist has to follow his/her own instincts and
Will must al ready be forming those. Let's hope he has the strength and room in
his contract to follow them. Oh and please - no more emotionally constipated
Beatles covers and stop going mmm, mmm, yeah at the start of everything, Will.
Radio One
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A very saucy no. 1…
Will and Gareth
may have been knocked off the top spot in the singles, but Will won't care as
this week he's King of the Album Chart instead. His new album 'From Now On' is
the highest, and only, new entry in the Top 10 album chart. It makes a very
convincing debut, selling as many copies as the rest of the top five combined.